Energy Forward TV labels get labels mixed up

Attention, television shoppers: The TV may say "Energy Forward," but that doesn't mean it is.

A newish program by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in partnership with Northwest utilities and big-box retailers aims to educate consumers about which televisions are 30 percent more efficient than what's required to meet federal Energy Star standards. (That government program labels appliances with superior energy efficiency.)

A laudable goal.

But if a visit to a couple of local retailers is any indication, the Energy Forward program has some significant kinks to work out.

At a Portland Costco the other day, six Energy Forward labels marked just a handful of the many TVs. A sales associate said he didn't know much about Energy Forward and that those signs had been in place for months while the televisions underneath them were sometimes swapped daily. He checked model numbers and found TVs at Costco that weren't Energy Forward nevertheless sporting the label and TVs that qualified not marked at all. It was a similar story at a local Sears.

The NEEA, funded by utilities, set about almost two years ago to push the most energy-efficient TVs in big-box retailers in the Northwest, including Costco, Sears, Best Buy and others. Those TVs, NEEA points out, happen to also have the latest and best technology.

For each ultra-energy-efficient TV retailers sell, they get a small monetary incentive, although no would say how much.

Late last year, the energy efficiency alliance rebranded its television campaign Energy Forward, retooled it and announced that these were the most efficient, money-saving televisions out there.

That was the theory.

Why the disconnect at the stores? Representatives for Energy Forward visit retailers five to seven times a year to ensure signs are appropriately placed, but it's still not enough. Stephanie Fleming at NEEA points out her organization understands there's a challenge in training store associates and has launched a pilot program to tackle just what I encountered.

Yoon Kim, a television buyer for Costco, said merchandise is always changing. Although the company cares a lot about energy efficiency and has dramatically shifted into selling LED (light emitting diode) televisions, he says labeling can get mixed up since it's not the associates' main responsibility.

The latest iteration of the Northwest Conservation and Electric Power Plan states that 85 percent of the region's future energy needs over the next 20 years can be met with energy efficiencies. What kind of difference can an energy-efficient television make? In the Northwest, TVs consume nearly 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of energy annually, according to Northwest Power and Conservation Council estimates.

If everyone in the region used energy-efficient televisions it would save an estimated $60 million in annual energy costs. And in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it would be equivalent to removing 60,000 cars from the road

Despite its problems, the Energy Forward campaign has made a difference. "The biggest impact they've made? They've incentivized us to push manufacturers to make televisions better as far as energy efficiency goes," says Costco's Kim.

Energy Star had planned to issue stricter standards for what constitutes an Energy Star television next spring but since has bumped that up to later this year. And that's because NEEA and retailers could show consumers were buying significantly more ultra-energy-efficient TVs, says Fleming. From 2009 to 2010, sales of the most energy-efficient TVs increased from 1 percent to 13 percent.

As a consumer here's what I would do: check out this Energy Forward site -- energyefficientelectronics.org/product -- before shopping for a TV.

Type in the TV you want for information on its energy efficiency. Better yet, if you have a smartphone, take it to the store. Don't rely on the Energy Forward display signs -- at least for now.